Elizabeth Beloe: The Power of Community Networks

How do people cope with the challenges of moving away from their hometowns and country? This unique contribution to the field of migration and transnationalism investigates the formation of and participation in Home Town Associations and Rotating Savings and Credit Associations of Cameroonian women and asks what resources they provide their members. Grounded in ethnographic methodology, transnationalism, and social network theory, it delves into the lived experiences of Anglophone Cameroonian Women in Berlin. When women and men move from their hometown to another setting, they lose the physical proximity and “everydayness” of existing relationships in which vital resources are embedded. Faced with the added challenges of migration to Germany, Anglophone women from Cameroon create and maintain vibrant social networks based on trust, reciprocity, and social capital. Through their networks and involvement in associations, they generate social, financial, and cultural capital. This book gives an insight into Cameroonian women’s associational life, remittances, integration, migration, transnationalism, and ethnographic studies of minority groups.

About the author
Elizabeth Iyase Beloe-Nyamusa is a social and cultural anthroplogist interested in migration, development policies, integration, intercultural relations, and conflict management. This book is based on her PhD research at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin.